John W. Sedwick (born March 13, 1946) is a senior

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the District of Alaska The United States District Court for the District of Alaska (in case citations, D. Alaska) is a federal court in the Ninth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are appealed to the F ...

Education and career

Sedwick was born in 1946 in Kittanning,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. He attended

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

where he received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in 1968. He then served in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

as a Sergeant from 1969 to 1971. He graduated with a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1972. Later, he went into private practice in Anchorage,

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

from 1972 to 1981. He then served as the Director of the Division of Land and Water Management of the Department of Natural Resources, State of Alaska from 1981 to 1982. He returned to private practice from 1982 to 1992.

Federal judicial service

Sedwick was nominated by George H. W. Bush on July 2, 1992, to the

, to a seat vacated by Judge

Andrew Kleinfeld Andrew Jay Kleinfeld (born June 12, 1945) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a senior U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since 2010. He served as an active judge on the Ninth Circuit from 1991 to 2010. ...

. He was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on October 8, 1992, and received his commission on October 9, 1992. He served as Chief Judge from 2002 to 2009. On March 13, 2011, John W. Sedwick assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

. He was succeeded by Judge Sharon L. Gleason.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sedwick, John W. People from Kittanning, Pennsylvania Lawyers from Anchorage, Alaska Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Alaska Dartmouth College alumni Harvard Law School alumni United States district court judges appointed by George H. W. Bush 20th-century American judges 1946 births Living people 21st-century American judges